1 October 2015 - News Digest on LGBTI rights

Articles

Saudi Arabia insists UN keeps LGBT rights out of its development goals
By The Independent, 29 Sep 2015

Saudi Arabia is insisting the UN removes gay rights from the organisation’s Global Goals, saying it is “counter to Islamic law”. The protest comes from the Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel Al-Jubeir, who told the UN General Assembly that “mentioning sex in the text, to us, means exactly male and female. Mentioning family means consisting of a married man and woman,” AP reported. He stated Saudi Arabia has the right not to follow any agenda that runs “counter to Islamic law”.

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Campaign launched highlighting economic case for pro-LGBT rights
by The Guardian, 29 Sep 2015

Fourteen global businesses, including Google and Royal Bank of Scotland, have launched a campaign to put forward the economic case for ending discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender individuals. Launched at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York, the Open for Business campaign published research showing economies, companies and individuals perform better in societies that support LGBT employees. The report by Open for Business spells out that nearly 80 countries criminalise consensual, adult same-sex activity, or use other laws to marginalise and persecute LGBT individuals. The initiative, which also includes technology group IBM, consultancy EY and law firm Linklaters and backed by businesses that employ 1.3 million people globally, comes after the controversy sparked by the US state of Indiana in March, when it backed legislation that appeared to allow discrimination against the LBGT community. The row prompted Apple’s boss Tim Cook, who spoke out last year about being gay, to call for a rethink of such laws that have been passed in 20 US states.
 

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Homophobic mobs attack LGBT people in Kenya with impunity: report
By Reuters, 28 Sep 2015

Homophobic mobs have repeatedly attacked lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Kenya but police are unwilling to even attempt to bring the perpetrators to justice, rights groups said on Monday. Homosexuality is taboo in almost all African countries and is punishable by up to 14 years in jail in Kenya. Violence against LGBT people is common in the east African nation, but victims fear reporting hate crimes to the police who, in turn, often refuse to pursue their cases.There have been at least six incidents since 2008 of mob violence against LGBT minorities on the coast, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and PEMA Kenya, a community organization in the coastal city of Mombasa, said in a report.

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Transgender inmate wins legal victory after mistreatment by prison guards
By The Guardian, 24 Sep 2015

A transgender inmate who says she was called “it” and “some kind of animal” by guards who watched her shower has won a legal victory that forces the Maryland prison system to better train for how to treat transgender people, advocates say. Neon Brown, who goes by the name Sandy, said in a grievance that she was sent to the state prison at Patuxent in February 2014 for a psychological screening. Brown said she was placed in solitary confinement, and kept there for 66 days despite a directive from the jail warden that staff should not segregate her from the rest of the population. During that time, she was routinely harassed by guards who made fun of her while she showered, including one who told her to commit suicide, Brown said in the complaint.

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